Unexpected visitor camps out in NJ basement

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ (News 12/CNN) -- A New Jersey family has quite a story to tell after an unusual visitor spent a night in their basement. That visitor was not invited, and has four legs.

First Ken Dunwald noticed it was drafty in the basement then he saw a gaping hole in the window and shattered glass all over the place.

Finally he spotted the intruder, a very pregnant coyote, comfortably curled up on the basement floor. Ken stayed calm too, but his daughter was a little freaked out. He says, "My mom comes running in and saying, 'Erica, don't leave your room. There's a coyote in the basement.' A coyote? Why is there a coyote in the house?"

Best Ken can figure, the coyote charged full speed at one of the many critters that pass by their ground-level windows at night, missed its intended prey, and crashed headlong through the glass and into the basement of the Dunwald family's Oakland home. Remarkably, no one woke up. Even police found the call hard to believe.

"They said, 'You sure it's not a dog?' and I go, 'No, it's not a dog.' And everybody looked at it and said, 'Wow, that's a coyote.'"

The family says animal control officers decided against capturing it, opting to block the stairs - and open a door - hoping she'd take the hint.

With her path into the house blocked, there was really only one way for the coyote to get out. She ran through the garage - through this door right here - into this part of the garage, and with this open and she took off.